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Powerful earthquakes strike Asia | Powerful earthquakes strike Asia |
(20 minutes later) | |
Two powerful earthquakes have struck the north-eastern Indonesian Moluccas islands and Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, triggering tsunami alerts. | Two powerful earthquakes have struck the north-eastern Indonesian Moluccas islands and Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, triggering tsunami alerts. |
The first, which had a magnitude of 6.6, occurred at 0902 (0002 GMT) about 120km (75 miles) north of the city of Ternate, the US Geological Survey said. | |
A few minutes later, a 7.2-magnitude quake hit Hokkaido's coast, 220km (135 miles) east of the capital, Sapporo. | A few minutes later, a 7.2-magnitude quake hit Hokkaido's coast, 220km (135 miles) east of the capital, Sapporo. |
There have so far been no reports of casualties from either country. | There have so far been no reports of casualties from either country. |
The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a warning for a 50cm (20-inch) tsunami along the eastern coast of Hokkaido and the north-eastern coast of the country's main island of Honshu. | |
A tsunami alert issued immediately after the tremor in the Moluccas islands was lifted by Indonesia's meteorological agency when the feared wave never came. | |
"I felt the shaking but it wasn't really strong," Ojihan Washab, a hospital worker in Ternate, told the AFP news agency afterwards. | |
A tsunami forms when energy from an earthquake vertically jolts the seabed by several metres, displacing a huge volume of water. | |
An earthquake off Indonesia triggered the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed approximately 220,000 people across the Indian Ocean. | |
Indonesia and Japan both lie on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world's most seismically active areas. | |
Are you in the affected areas? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below. | Are you in the affected areas? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below. |
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At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. | At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. |